It was the week to go long. How far could you move horizontally (but excluding flights from Auckland, nice try)?
Whilst almost all previous competitors were recording time on the bike, Sarah Wheeler put the hours in on running and then Chris Mullett made his first entry into the series.
Clare Coward’s 211km took the women’s lead with Angie Barlow only 50k behind. In the Open category, it will surprise few that James Little led the way with another 500+ km week. Mike Smith continued his warm weather training to just sneak past Michael Sleeman’s 366km by 7.5km. The top 3 all beat those starting a triathlon training camp in Lanzarote, one of whom failed to publish these results until he had returned from the camp – sorry.
And so we come to the finale in the week commencing 18 March. Scoring will be a little different as part of the purpose is to improve. For each of the 3 events (400m timed swim, 40km timed cycle, 5km timed run/walk) the points will be divided into 2 elements with 8, 7, 6, 5 points awarded for top 4 in both fastest time and % improvement. 4 points awarded as a minimum for completing each event.
For example, Alf has original swim times of 8:20 whilst Barry didn’t swim previously. Alf records 7:50 which at 6% is the most improved (8 points), but only 4th fastest (5 points), whilst Barry records 9:00 (4 points for % improved against zero base) and another 4 points for 6th fastest this week.
So… 16 points available per sport giving a maximum of 48 (but you’d have to be both the fastest and most improved across the board)
It really is all up for grabs. Clare looking unbeatable (but Bournemouth came back to win from 3-0 this week) whilst in the Open category, Vince Hounsome has a very narrow lead over James and Michael, with Rich White and Innes Wright having to wish for a tail wind/current.
See the current up to date results here
